The Deline Dene Band is finding out the hard way how business is conducted with public contracts. The band recently lost out on two contracts they feel should have gone to them.

Apology A story in the April 17 edition of News/North incorrectly identified Nunavut Tunngavik Inc. as having sole responsibility for the shortcomings outlined in the recent report entitled Five Year Review. The story neglected to recognize the Government of Canada and the Government of Nunavut's responsibilities in implementing the land claim. As well, NTI didn't welcome the grade of unsatisfactory, but only welcomed the review. We apologize for any confusion and embarrassment this may have caused for NTI.

On one tender, the band failed to bid. On the other, they came in dead last out of seven bids. Gone are the days of sole-sourcing and negotiated contracts that gave aboriginal development corporations a bad name.

While locally-owned aboriginal business, especially band development businesses, deserve special consideration, they should still have to go through a bidding process.

Anything else invites corruption, favouritism and abuse of public funds.

Last week Environment Minister David Anderson tabled legislation in the House of Commons called the Species at Risk Act.

It is aimed at protecting those plants and animals whose existence is threatened with extinction.

Anderson appears to be serious about this.

How can we tell? He's loosened the purse strings. Economic progress in the North, particularly the development of non-renewable resources such as minerals and natural gas, will ultimately be rendered meaningless if the environment is laid to waste in the process.

Any notion of preserving traditional ways of life will disappear in a cloud of diesel smoke or beneath a patch of paved tundra.

If we don't get behind the Species at Risk legislation, we'll find ourselves alone in a wasteland, with nobody to blame but ourselves.

Like the prospectors who flocked to the Yukon at the turn of the century in search of Klondike gold, the Northern wealth still draws southern residents looking for the big bucks that come with it.

In the past, working in the North meant living here too. Now, the ease of plane travel and long shifts on and off the job mean it's easy to live in the south and commute, earning those big bucks for spending down south. They even take with them most of the tax generated off a Northern income, all except a one-per cent territorial payroll levy.

Like many Northerners, Hay River mayor Jack Rowe doesn't like what's going on and has suggested a new non-residential tax that would include the one per cent levy and the tax that should come to the NWT, but instead goes to the worker's home province. It's an idea worth considering.

Although Operation Ulu did not turn up evidence of Greenlandic hunters illegally harvesting bears in Nunavut, the five-day sovereignty patrol made the trip worthwhile.

Conducted earlier this month 300 kilometres north of Grise Fiord, the exercise brought officials from the Armed Forces together with Canadian Rangers and an RCMP officer. The team was airlifted into Alexandria Fiord and travelled the area by snowmobile.

While it would have been useful to confirm the claims of international poaching made by Grise Fiord residents -- wildlife officials in the Ellesmere Island hamlet say their Greenlandic neighbours come every year and hunt bears illegally -- the military's hands were truly tied.

Had the Department of National Defense officials and the Rangers conducted a more covert operation, they might, as critics of Operation Ulu may claim, have been able to catch Greenlandic hunters red-handed.

However, it's a difficult task to protect a country's independence secretly.

The whole point of sovereignty patrols is to fly the flag and let the world know the borders of Canadian soil and tundra.

While the military did indeed acknowledge the seriousness of the situation through their attempts to investigate the poaching allegations, the trip was, first and foremost, about asserting Canada's sovereignty.

That was accomplished.

Furthermore, the Rangers were given yet another opportunity to hone and develop the skills they regularly use to help keep our country safe.

Indeed, Operation Ulu was successful on many levels and it sent a strong message to potential poachers that the country's enforcement agencies don't take illegal hunting practices lightly.

If approved by the Department of Education, science camps that earn credits towards a high school diploma may be one of the best ways to encourage students to attend school.

Outside of the formal and structured classroom, students are free to experience fun, hands-on learning about things that are familiar to them.

The camp-for-credit concept will give students a chance to showcase their talents while teaching them how to conduct scientific research and collect data while learning chemistry, physics and biology.

By taking students out of the school, the camps are an ideal way to keep them in school, as well as encouraging them to pursue careers in the field of science.